Coke-oven operating appliance



Nov. M, 1939. s. H. KIMMEL COKE-OVEN OPERATING APPLIANCE 4 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Jan. 17, 1939 INVENTOIL ff- AVM/VEL.

ATTORNEY Nov. 14, 1939. s. H. KIMMEL 2,179,635

COKE-OVEN OPERATING APPLIANCE med Jan. 17, 1959 4 sheets-sheet 2 UUUUDU ,nnunnn l//f///////////////,///// I] D [l l] D INVENTOR. J9/V645 Ta/v AN/175A.

Wgvm/ ATTORNEY.

Jov. 14, 1939. s. H. KIMMEL COKE-OVEN OPERATING APPLIANCE Filed Jan. 17, 1939 4 Sheets-Sheeatv 3 INVENTOR. JP/YGL 5 roxy/7. AN/751.

S. H. KIMMEL Nov. M, w39.

COKE-OVEN OPERATING APPLIANCE Filed Jan. 17, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Z r f INM..

f f f f f f INVENTOR. J//YGAfro/v /S MMEL.

atented Nov.. i4, i939 2,179,635 COKE-OVEN OPERATING APPLIANCE Singleton Il. Kimmel, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to Koppers Company, a. corporation of Dela- Ware Application January 17, 1939, Serial No. 251,295

7 Claims.

The present invention relates to the renovating of coke-oven heating walls in general and more especially pertains to the reconditioning of such heating Walls of horizontally elongated coking chambers as are adjacent or contiguous to highly heated walls in an operating battery thereof.

Occasionally there arises the necessity of repairing one or a part thereof or more heating walls of the coke ovens in a 'battery thereof without disturbing normal operations in closely adjacent ovens. A damaged heatingwall may in some instances lie immediatelyradjacent another that is in excellent condition. In consequence, however, of its proximity to the damaged oven, it has been heretofore thought necessary, for the establishing of thermal conditions that are tolerable for the Workmen in the coking chamber involved in the repairs, to cool the good wall, or even several of the adjacent good walls, down to a temperature where the resulting contraction is so extensive that the continuity of the brickwork is seriously disorganized and cracks, fissures and distortions appear which necessitate widespread restoration in what had previously been completely satisfactory walls, before the same can be reheated and returned to acceptably operative condition. Such circumstances as the above are especially serious in the case of silica walls because of both the complexity and of the relatively large changes in volume such material passes through at well-known points on curves representing its expansion characteristics. One of the crystalline modifications of silica present in the bricks ordinarily used in coke-oven Wall construction, undergoes a sharp change in volume at temperatures as low as about 445 F. It is obvious therefore that a silica wall should be maintained at a temperature at least somewhat thereabove and preferably above about 14'75" F. If more or less of its integrity is to be preserved; such degree of heat in a heating wall of course is absolutely prohibitive to a workmans entering the therewith associated coking chamber,even for a shorter period, and one of the objects of the present improvement is to provide inexpensive, simple and effective means whereby one of the heating walls of a carbonization chamber can be,v maintained at said relatively high temperaturesand even with continued combustion in .progress in all or a part of its heatingv flues While simultaneously providing inthe opposite rheating wall and inv the intervening oven chamber, such temperatures as well as such available working 1 space that workmen can` enter the latter and' handle the brickwork of the damaged Wall without the slightest discomfort.

Another object of invention is to provide means lfor the stated purpose that can be constructed by artisans of ordinary skill and which can be placed in operating position by employment of none other than the auxiliary mechanical equipment used around any coke-oven battery..

A further object of the instant improvement is obviation not only of the loss of potential plant production that is occasioned by the necessity of cooling good coke-oven heating walls to such temperatures as produce disruptive stresses therein solely for the purpose of providing conditions comfortable for workmen in an adjacent heating wall, but also of the economic loss to the wall itself that is engendered. by a practice which is made inexpedient by the hereinafter described invention. The invention has for other objects such other improvements and such operative advantages or results as may be found to obtain in the processes or apparatus hereinafter described or claimed.

Briefly stated, the present .invention comprises forming, outside the battery structure, rigid, mobile, heat-insulating shields of substantial yet wieldable proportions and thereafter inserting them through the mouth of that oven having a to-be-repaired and a good heating Wall, and disposing a plurality of them along the face of the. latter which it is planned to maintain hot. In general, it has been found expedient to form the said heat-insulating shields of invention as units comprising a heavy layer of an insulating material supported on a reenforcing framework which is about six feet in width and in length about six inches shorter than the height of the coking chamber in'which they are to be employed. They should, obviously, have no dimension greater than can be conveniently passed through the mouth of the coking chamber. The said shields should be preferably about six inches shorter than the height of theto-be-protected wall in order to allow some movement in a vertical direction, for purposes hereinafter explained, and also as an aid toward facilitating their movement and adjustment along the heating-wall face. `When of the stated dimensions, they are adapted for easy handling by a light crane and are slidable along the oven sole and the face of the heating Wall by means of the ram of the pusher-machine. It is of course desirable so to proportion the lwidth of the shields that only entire vunits will be required completely to insulate a heating wall. A

better appreciation of the inexpensveness lof the *heat shields of invention, of their easeof installapose, will be obtained from a description of their methods of manufacture and installation made with the assistance of the accompanying drawings.

In. the accompanying drawings forming a part of. this specification and showing for purposes of exemplication a preferred apparatus and method in which the invention may be embodied and practised but without limiting the claimed invention specifically to such illustrative instance or` instances:

Fig. 1 is a vertical view in elevation of a form of heat-insulating-shield made according to provisions of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a side view in elevation of Fig. I;

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken along the line III-III of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken longitudinally pointadjacent the horizontal duct, having been entirely removed for purposes of rebuilding, and the masonry of the upper part of said removed heating wall having been suspended by rods that extend downwardly' from through the inspection holes of the heating ues and tie into metal plates that cover the bottom of the unremoved tiers of masonry; and

' hind a transverse Fig. 6 is a perspective view, parts in section, of the upper part of a coke-oven battery of that type having a gas-flow system in which the heating ues at one battery side are all operative simultaneously as either flame-nues or combustionproducts flues alternately with those on the other battery side, and showing a part of one heating wall removed for its rebuilding and with the "heating flues of the remaining part of the heating.

wall communicably connected by means of a temporary combustion-products duct withI the horizontal duct of an adjacentheating wall, that section ofthe coking chamber contiguous to said remaining heating-wall part being isolated besection of the good heatingwall opposite the removed heating i'lues being covered by the heatinsulating shields provided by the invention, such an arrangement making repairs on a partial heating wall conveniently possible while maintaining the opposite partial wall at temperatures above those at 'which disruptive stresses will develop therein, as will be hereinafter described.

The same characters of reference designate the same parts in each of the views of the drawings.

Referring now to the drawings, and particularly to Figs. 1, 2, 3, in which'there is shown a suitable lform of mobile heat-insulating shield whereby the heating wall of a coking chamber, that is directly opposite one which is destined for cooling and extensive rebuilding, can be so insulated against radiation of heat` therefrom that temperatures of 14001600 F. can be maintained therein by continuance of the combustion of fuel gas in its heating ues and without giving rise to uncomfortable conditions vfor workmen' ln the the top of thebattery' insulating bulkhead and thatv 2,179,635 tion, and of their effectiveness, for the stated puradjacent coking chamber, the insulating-shield I0 may be conveniently and cheaply formed from lengths of angle-iron, or the like, that is of appropriate dimensions for easy handling. It has been demonstrated in practice that said shields can be easily shifted and installed with equipment ordinarily available in a coke-plant if their width II is about six feet and their height I2 about six inches less than that of the height of the to-berepaired coking chamber, or at least no greater than will conveniently pass through the mouth I 3 of the involved coking chamber.'

` After. cutting the angle-iron stock into lengths conforming to such dimensions, the ends thereof may be welded together tov form the rectilinear framework shown in Fig. 1, the peripheral members being supported by struts I4 in `any preferred arrangement, but that however shown in the said Fig. 1 has proven satisfactory. To the upper stretcher of the frame is Welded a lifting eye I5, whereby the shield is supportable on a crane for purposes of conveyance, and also a spring-member I6 that protrudes sufficiently, from said stretcher, to span the to-be-repaired oven and to rigidly support the shield against the wall that is to be insulated, by its pressure against the upper part of the opposite wall. A

Across the welded framework, formed from the vsections of angle-iron, there isstretched and thereto attached, some such perforate reenforcing material I1 as woven-wire, expanded metal, or the like, capable of supporting ,a heavy layer of insulating'material. -'I'his reenforcing material is thereafter covered with a coating I8 of a material having good insulating properties, saidl coating being preferably about three inches in thickness. The coating has been satisfactorily formed of a cement compounded of five parts of C-3 Silocel, one part re clay and one part Lumnite cement, all mixed to form a workable mixture which is then appliedover the reenforcing material I1 of the shield-frame. After this cement has hardened, the heat-insulating shield is ready for placing in operating position against the hot brickwork of the good wall that is to be protected.

'I'he framework of the insulating shields is not necessarily limited to a filling with an insulating material formed from a compound that is cast or molded onto the perforate reenforcing material becaiise it is obvious that a similarly effective shield with pre-formed blocks or fitted sections of nonplastic material. The insulating cement may also be successfully compounded from other cellular constituents having heat-insulating properties, such, for example, as calcined diatomaceous earth, exfoliated vermiculite, refuse from the manufacture of insulating bricks or the product Haydite which is l a bloated shale, or any other material of similar properties. i

The vertical edges I9 of the heat-shields may be'formed as surfaces that lie in a single plane, as illustrated i'n Figs. 2, 3, or,they may be so designed that adjacent shields Will dove-tail `together in. tongue-and-groove fashion, in interest of better heat confinement however, the former type has proven satisfactory in practice. The mobile heat-insulating shields for cokeoven' walls that the present invention provides can be installed in the coking chambers and be held closely against the to-be-insulated walls in a very simple manner. 'I'hey are adapted to be easily slideable along the face of a heating wall by the ram of the coke-pusher machine and, in

consequence of this fact, they can be installedl in may be bunt up by suing the shield-frame operating position in a hot colring chamber and removed therefrom without greatly reducing its temperature or requiring a workmans entering an oven at relatively high temperature, or exposing him in any degree to the rigors of excessively high temperatures. The large surface covered by each unit makes it possible completely to cover an entire heating wall in a relatively short time. The most of these advantages result from the facts that the shields are prepared outside the battery structure and that they are mechanically installable and removable therefrom.

Let it now be assumed that in a battery of horizontally elongated coke ovens the heating walls of which are all at customary operating temperatures, it becomes desirable to re-build an entire lued heating wall, without cooling the opposite heating walls of thereto adjacent coking chambers below a temperature at which an extensive contraction of their brickwork will take place, while also maintaining in the to-be-repaired wall temperature conditions that are comfortable to the workmen. An oven door is removed from the cokeor the pusher-side of the two ovens (Fig. 5) having the common heating-wall that it is contemplated repairing.' Channel-irons 2l of sufficient width to slideably receive the lower edges of the heat-insulating shields and of sufficient length to extend from face-to-face of the battery are then slid along the soles of the two adjacent ovens and adjusted into positions close to the lower edge of each of the heating walls 22 that are opposite to the toberepaired wall and which are to be maintained hot during the repair period. These channel-irons serve both as a support for the lower edges of the insulating shields and also as a guide or trackway for sliding them into position along the oven walls it is desired to insulate. y

The already prepared heat-shields lll are then attached to a crane, or the like, by means of the lifting eye l5 and elevated to such position that their lower edges are slightly above the soles of the coking chambers at the pusher side of the battery. A lower corner of each shield is then inserted between the vertical walls of the channel-irons and the whole shield is forced into the oven by pushing it along the channel-iron by means of the coke-ram 23 of the pusher-machine, as shown in Fig. if This operation is repeated until the two oven-heating walls opposite' the to-be-repaired heating wall are entirely covered from the coketo pusher-side of the battery. The heat-shields are supported closely against the hot walls at their lower edges by means of the channel-irons and at their tops by the pressure of spring-member l5 against the top of the wall that'is to be dismantled. After the contiguous good heating walls have been thus covered with an easily installable and removable layer of heat-insulating material, if not previously so done, the fuelwgas supply to the heating wall which it is contemplated dismantling, is turned off for purposes of cooling while at the same time the quantity of fuel-gas delivered to the insulated,

good walls may be reduced until a preferred temperature in their brickwork has been reached. It has b een determined in practice that in the case of good oven walls formed from silica bricks,

maintaining them at temperatures of 1400-1600 F. is adequately high to obviate development of cracks, distortions and the like, that require extensive pointingup when such temperatures are accompan'ed by judicious adjustment of the pressure of the buclrstays against the wall.

-parts of the heat-shields.

The layer of heat-insulating material provided by the above-described heat-shields is adequate to prevent the flowing of a significant quantity of heat from the insulated good walls into the adjacent coking chambers 2U, and the to-be-repaired wall will therefore soon cool to a-temperature where its brickwork can be easily handled and dismantling thereof can proceed, the temperaturesin the adjacent coking chambers themselves being also such that they can be entered by workmen without the slightest discomfort.

In Fig. 5 there is shown a Coke-oven battery in which the greater part of a flued heating wall that is common to two coking chambers has been removed for rebuilding, the opposite heating walls of the adjacentcoking chambers being insulated in accordance with provisions of the present invention. In the illustrated battery, the upper part of the brickwork of the to-be-repaired wall,

including the horizontal duct 2d, was in good condition and did not need substitution. This section of the wall was therefore retained in the batteryv during repairs and has been suspended from supporting angle-irons 25 (see Fig. 6) that are disposed along the top of the battery, by

means of tie-rods 26 and metal plates 21, said tierods being inserted through the flue-inspection holes 28 found in any coke-oven structure. The said angle-irons 25 also serve to distribute the weight of the retained wall-portion over a large area; it is obvious vthat they must be of such dimensions and in such arrangement as not to interfere with normal functioning of the larrycar which is used to charge other ovens of the battery.

As clearly shown in Fig. 5, the retained upper sections of t-he dismantled wall are employed as supports aganstwhich the spring-members I6 of the heat-shields I8 can press to hold the latter closely adjacent the insulated wall. In many casos of wall repair, these upper wall-sections will be available for such purpose because they are frequently still in satisfactory' conditions Vwhen the lower brickwork requires rebuilding. When, however, an entire heating wall must be dismantled, itis clear that some other appropriate means must bc furnished to .support the upper In as much as in the case of complete-Wall dismantling, the oven roofs willbe removed, the said shields can be supported by tieing them to permanent fixtures along the top of the battery, according to the best imagina tion of the superintendent of repairs.

After completion of the wall repairs, the heatshields may be slideably removed from in front of the insulated wall by the coke-pusher ram in much the same manner as they were installed and, in many instances, they are re-usable.

In some circumstances, there may arise the necessity of rebuilding only a portion of a heating wall. As shown in the accompanying Fig. 6, that portion of a coking chamber which is in satisfactory condition may be walled off from its damaged part by means of a temporary crosswise bulkhead 29 that may be built up in situ of insulating bricks or preformed outside the battery and slid into place along the oven sole. In said Fig. 6, the illustrated bulkhead 29 is of the latter type having been supplied with skids 38 upon which it was'slid into place by the ram of the pusher machine. That section of a good heating wall opposite the to-be-repaired wallsection can then be insulated and retained hot by means of that number of heat-shields of the present invention appropriate to cover the same. In the heat-shields Y ment, the regenerators case shown in said Fig. 6, the channel-iron 2|, which extends only half the distance crosswise of the battery, assists in the support of two lof the of invention, and the damaged portions of the opposite Wall have been removed from a level adjacent the horizontal duct 2lil down to the level of the 3l. `With such an arrangement, fuel gasl can be burned in all of the heating flues of heating wall 32 and also in those remaining heating flues of heating wall 33 which are adjacent that portion of the intermediate coking chamber isolated behind bulkhead 29. l

.In proceeding with repairs on only a fraction of the total number of heating ues comprising a heating wall while simultaneously burning fuel gas in the remainder thereof, it will sometimes be necessary to make special temporary provision to remove combustion-products from those flues that are still being provision will depend upon the extent of the wall repairs'and also upon the scheme of ow of fuel gas and combustion-products along the Wall and through the regenerators of that particular type of oven being reconditioned. In some instances it will be necessary temporarily to tie an auxiliary duct between the upper ends, or the horizontal duct, of the still point of entry into the heating system, for example the horizontal ducts, of a thereadjacent heating wall. This is preferably carried out in such manner that the gas-flow reversing mechanism for the battery can be utilized as normally to direct gaseous fiow through those ues of a tobe-repaired heating wall in which combustion is continued. In the battery illustrated in Fig. 6, the now of gases in any one heatingwall `is normally such that those heating ues of a wall on one side of the battery median alternate with those on the other side in being flame fiues and combustion-product ues, thus those flues at one side of the battery intermittently function to carry away combustion-products from the other battery-side. In the repair problem presented in Fig. 6, the required reconditioning of heating wall 33 was so extensive as to necessitate complete removal and rebuilding of those iiues` which would normally function to carry away combustion-products from those that are to be retained hot during the period of reconstruction. Consequently, some other provision must be provided to conduct their Waste gases to the stack. To satisfy this requirement, the temporary auxiliary duct 34 was installed on the battery deck and arranged ga communicably connect an inspection hole 28 of each of the heating walls 32, 33. Normal communication between the extant heating flues of wall 33 and the to-be-repaired ues thereof has been interrupted by installation of a temporary barrier-wall 35 in the associated horizontal duct 24. These simple expediencies therefore form of said extant fines of wall 33 a temporarily separately heatable unit. During that part of a regenerative heating cycle in which they are functioning as flame-nues, their combustion-products ow by means of temporary duct 34 into the horizontal duct for heating wall 32, and are so disposed of, and during the period of reverse flow in the heating cycle, combustionproducts will be withdrawn from the horizontal flue of their opposite heating wall and down through their own underlying regeneratofs to reheat the latter; i. e., in the illustrated arrangebeneath the yet operative iiues of wall 33 will be heated by wastegas and air ports respectively 30,`

heated.' The nature of such vpipe from the reversing valve heated flues and a convenient `fibrous packing material, thus purpose, two thicknesses ment, it now becomes possible to heat fromf,wall 32. Instead of beingformed of continuous construction, bulkhead 29 contains preferably a plurality of port-holes 36 that are each closed by an easily extractable brick 31, each such port is thus optionally serviceable for the purpose of controlling a gradual ow of heat from an lalready heated portion of a coking chamber into a newly reconstructed part; a feature that assists in the slow drying of the latter and its gradual return to operating temperatures.

In some applications of the instant improvement, such for example, as those in which the heating walls are heated with rich gas distributed into the lower parts of the heating flues from rich-gas conduits or gun-bricks that extend crosswise of a battery in the upper parts of the regenerator walls, that occasion may arise in which, during the repair interval, it is desirable to deliver rich gas to heating nues which, in respect of said conduit, are downstream of those flues being reconditioned and therefore employing no fuel gas. In such circumstance it has been found convenient to extend an auxiliary of the rich-gas main, at the 'face of the battery, inwardly through said gun-brick to a point beyond the damaged ues where the same is sealed into the gun-brick by an easily extractable granular or the normal richgas reversing mechanism can still be employed to regulate flow of fuel gas in that portion of the flues of the to-be-r'epaired wall in which heating is to be continued.y

Upon occasion, during the repairing of cokeoven heating walls by the above described means it has been found advisable to rebuild some of thev regenerator walls therebeneath while maintaining at high temperatures those regenerators associated with the still heated coking-chamber Walls adjacent the to-be-repaired coking-chamber walls., This circumstance has necessitated the provision of means whereby the brickwork of a regenerator wall immediately adjacent a wall undergoing a damaging degree of its contraction cannot take place and will, `in addition, also provide comfortable conditions for the workmen. For this of asbestos fabric depending as a curtain from the brickwork ofthe sole of the to-be-repaired oven anddown to the battery-supporting mat, have been employed with highly satisfactory results for the workmen and also for the brickwork itself.

As hereinbefore mentioned the heat-shields of invention are preferably made about six inches less in length than the height of the coking chamber in which they areY to be employed. This feature offers the advantage that the individual sections can be easily raised somewhat above the level of the oven sole thereby making that part of the coking chamber accessible to the installation of new bricks, wherever necessary.

By means of the herein-described improveapply over the entire surface of a hot coke-oven heating wall and to remove therefrom, without at any time subjecting the workmen to disagreeably high temperatures, a heat-insulating 'sheathing that is adequate to permit a relatively high rate of combustion being continued in the insulated wall while, in an immediately adjacent cooled wall and in the intermediate coking chamber, such moderate temperatures will prevail that workmen can enter the said intermediate coking chamber and remove and reconstruct the brickrepairs can be so well insulated that work of the cooled wall without being subjected in any degree to enervating temperatures.

The following description of a specic application of the improvement provided by the invention will give a clearer picture of the eiectiveness of the method, its utility and advantages. In a coke-oven battery, the heating iiues of which were maintained on the chamber side at operating temperatures of about 2000 F., it became advisable to renovate an entire heating wall, formed o f silica bricks, insome manner that would cause a minimum of disturbance to the masonry of the heating walls'there-adjacent and a minimum loss of capacity in plant-production. For the two surfaces of both heating walls that were contiguous to the to-be-repaired wall, heatshields were made according to the hereinabovegiven specific description. The coking chambers, that were common to the to-be-repaired wall, had their temperatures reduced to substantially 1600o F. by lowering the quantity of fuel gas distributed to their heating walls, whereupon the heat-shields were inserted in the coking chambers and slid therealong by the ram of the pusher machine until the entire surfaces of those heating walls immediately adjacent the to-berepaired wall were insulated by the heat-shields of invention (Fig. 5). Fuel-gas supply tothe to-be-repaired Wall was then cut-off and the supply of such gas to the heating walls on either side thereof somewhat reduced until the temperatures in the brickwork adjacent the heatshields were substantially 1500 F. The doors of the coking chambers on either side of said to-berepaired heating wall were removed and in five days the temperatures-in the said carbonizationv bers was adequate to hold the average tempera- CJI ture in the coking chambers at about F. and even on a hot summer day the temperature therein did not rise above F. After renovation had been completed, the heat-shields were pushed out of the ovens by the pusher-machine ram and the temperatures in the renovated wall and its two adjacent walls were then returned to operating temperatures without any apparent damage to the contiguous walls. During the entire repair pericd, the coking chambers (X in Fig. 5) next adjacent trmse having the insulated walls were in continuous normal'operation.

It will be noted that in the above-given application of the invention, the temperature in the coking chambers was somewhat reduced from that obtaining at normal operating temperatures, before the heat shields of invention were introduced thereinto. As the technology of metals advances to furnish metals more resistant to heat, heat-shields can be provided that will make possible their insertion into coke ovens while they are at full operating temperatures.

An important advantage of the invention resides in the fact that heat-shields thereby provided can be handled and installed by mechanisms necessary to any coke-oven plant, their feature of easy mobility being conducive to their facile and rapid installation in and removal from operating position in highly heated coking chambers. By means of the invention it is possible to preform the insulating shields outside the battery structure, at normal atmospheric temperatures,

rather than building them up in situ along an incandescent heating-wall face, which for obvious reasons would be an exceedingly expensive, if not, impractical task. They are installable without cooling a good heating wall to a point approaching temperatures at which impairment thereof would begin to develop; they have been especially devised to avoid such contingency.

The pre-formed heat-shields provided by the instant improvement are adapted to be inserted mechanically into a' coking chamber that is not greatly below full operating temperature and to be moved therealong to a desired point of the heating-wall i'ace without any preparatory drastic reduction of its temperature being required; they can be similarly removed intact for further use. l Advantages of the present invention are realizable not only in its above-described applications, where it is desired to replace the masonry, of a whole or a partial heating wall but, by reason of their utility in temporarily establishing a steep temperature gradient between opposite walls of an operating coking chamber, the heatshields are of great service in circumstances where less extensive renovation is contemplated. During the operation of a coke oven, the occasion may arise, for example, in which it is merely necessary to renew the joints or patch small areas in the existing brickwork of a heating wall by introducing new mortar thereinto. The performance of such task is greatly facilitated by use of the herein-described heat-shields which enable the operator temporarily to reduce the temperature of that section of the coking chamber immediately adjacent the to-be-patched wall suincient- 1y that much of the original water'content of the mortar and consequently its plasticity can be preserved as it is flowed through said heated oven section to the point of its application, thereby providi'ng improved distribution and deeper penetration of the mortar into the hot brick-work. This reduction in temperature also helps preserve the integrity of the conduits employed for flowing the mortar to the points of application.

The invention as hereinabove set forth is embodied in particular form and manner but may be variously embodied Within the scope of the claims hereinafter made.

I claim:

1. In combination with a coke-oven battery having a carbonization chamber and laterally disposed thereof a flued heating wall adapted to be maintained at an elevated temperature,

means for retaining said heating wall at higher substantially self-supportable heat-shields that are pre-formed outside the carbonization chamber and are insertable and removable through a mouth thereof, said heat-shields comprising: a body of refractory, heat-insulating material of adequate thickness and suflicient surface to prevent significant heat transfer from the substantial portion of the heating-wall surface that it ris disposed to cover; and, for the so-formed heatinsulating material, a securing structure capable of preventing significant deformation thereof during handling,

2. In combination with a coke-oven battery having a carbonization chamber and laterally dispofed thereof a flued heating wall that is adapted for heating to an elevated temperature, means for retaining said heating wall at higher temperatures while cooler temperatures exist in lface of the heating Wall that is adapted for heating to elevated temperature; and, for the soformed heat-insulating material, a securing structure adapted to resist significant deformation thereof when it is moved through the heated carbonization chamber by pressure of such device as the coke-pusher ram.

3. In a coke-oven battery having a carbonization chamber and laterally disposed thereof a fiued heating wall, the combination of: means adapted for heating said iiued heating wall to elevated temperatures; and other means for preventing undue transfer of heat therefrom into an adjacent heating Wall and a carbonization chamber therebetween, so that space of said chamber and the masonry of said adjacent heating wall can be held at temperatures convenient for workmen engaged in their renovation even though the heating wall that is adapted for heating is at elevated temperatures, said other means comprising: a pre-formed heat-insulating shield having a surface that substantially conforms to a large section of the heating wa'll which is disposed for heating, said shield being adapted for passing through a mouth of -the carbonization chamber and for movement along the face of said heating wall without substantial deformation, and comprising: a mass of refractory heat-insulating material comprising a bonded cellular constituent that is formed in adequate thickness and with sufiicient surface to impede substantial transfer of heat from a larger section of the face of that heating wall. that is arranged for heating to elevated temperatures; and for the so-formed refractory material a securing structure adapted to obviate vany considerable deformation thereof when the same is moved along the face of the tobe-insulated heating cwall by appropriate means, such as the ram of the .coke-pusher machine.

4. In combination with` a coke-oven battery having a carbonization chamber and laterally disposed thereof a ued heating wall, the combination of a fiued heating wall that is adapted to be maintained at elevated temperatures; and,

disposable along the face of said heating wall when thesame is at elevated temperatures, substantially rigid and pre-formed heat-insulating 5. In combination with a coke-oven battery, f

the combination of: a carbonization chamber; a ued heating wall there-adjacent that is adaptedfor heating to elevated temperatures; a guideway that is removably disposable in said carbonization chamber to support and facilitate movement along the face of said heating Wall of heat-insulating shields arranged to obviate substantial transfer of heat therefrom, so that said heating wall can be maintained at elevated temperatures even though an adjacent carbonization chamber and heating wall are at temperatures comfortable for workmen; and heat-shields that comprise refractory heat-insulating material and are adapted to cover 'a' substantial part of said heating-wall face and for movement along said guideway without substantial deformation.

6. In combination with a coke-oven battery, thecombination of a carbonization chamber; va ued heating wall there-adjacent that is adapted for heating to elevated temperatures; aY guideway that is removably disposable in said carbonization chamber to support and facilitate movement along the face of said heating wall of heatinsulating shields arranged to obviate substantial transfer of heat therefrom, so that said heating wall can be maintained at elevated temperatures even though an adjacent carbonization chamber and heating Wall are at temperatures comfortable for. workmen; heat-shields that comprise refractory heat-insulating material and are adapted to cover a substantial part of said heating-wall face and for movement along said guideway without substantial deformation; land means that employ a part of an adjacent heating wall for the support of said heating shields closely adjacent the heating wall that is adapted for heating to elevated temperatures.

7. A coke-oven battery having a horizontally- Velongated coking oven formed between flued heating walls and, in said coking oven, a shiftable bulkhead that is removable through the mouth thereof and which. comprises a mobile, preformed and substantially rigid slab-like member formed of a refractory heat-insulating material, whereby mutual heat transfer between larger surfaces of opposite heating walls can be optionally and extensively inhibited to establish a steep temperature gradient therebetween.

SINGLETON H. KIMMEL. 

